Category Archives: Religion

Thank you for coming back to read more of this series, The New Testament in Review.

I’ve heard it said that people cannot or will not envision Christ as a human, with human interests. Luke hints at Jesus as a drinker, a joker and a singer. I don’t know about you, but I find this depiction of Jesus much more than the idea of a conservative (not in the political sense) goody two shoes who never drinks, never curses, is always clean-shaven and dressed in his Sunday best.

Chapter 13
Jesus has lightened up a little bit, and instead of threatening his listeners with an eternity of burning in hell, he tells the listeners how to repent to get back into God’s grace. Jesus tells a parable here, a man wants to cut down a fig tree that hasn’t given fruit in three years. The gardener says “no, give me another year, and let me fertilize it.” Christ is obviously the gardener here, but who is the gardener after his death?

Jesus does have a rebuke for Jerusalem. And to rub it in, he rebukes them in song:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you didn’t want to!
Look! Your house is left to you deserted. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Chapter 14
Luke spent much of the first chapters of his gospel writing about everything except for what Jesus was teaching. In the last few chapters, he has written nothing but what Jesus was teaching. Much of this chapter is new to me. At least compared to the previous two gospels. Luke had a specific part of Christ’s teachings that he wanted to concentrate on or clairfy, and we’re to it now.

For example, regarding the “the greatest among you must become the least” idea that was mentioned in Matthew and Mark.” Luke details a parable that Jesus told to highlight this. If a person is invited to a wedding banquet and sits in one of the seats of honor, that person will probably be asked to get up and take one of the lesser seats. Christ says that this would leave the person in disgrace. However, if the person takes a seat that indicates no honor, the host will tell the person, “come up closer, my friend!” and that person will be honored by those watching.

Luke also highlights Jesus’s parables that charge one with taking care of “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.”

I have a big aside here, and this is going to dig deep into politics. A lot of Christian denominations align themselves with the Republican Party. However, it is the Democratic Party that fights for such things as health care and unemployment insurance and food stamps and welfare. It seems clear to me which party most embodies Christ’s call to take care of the poor and ill and homeless. And that party isn’t the Republican Party. So why do so many Christians stick with them? But I digress.

In the remainder of Luke 14, Christ describes what one must do to become a true disciple. And it isn’t pretty. A true disciple must “hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, as well as his own life,” take up their own burdens, give up everything that is important to a person, as well as any possessions they may have. Is there anyone nowadays that can live up to those requirements?

Chapter 15
This chapter is a celebration of repentance, a rejoicing in forgiveness. It is at once glorious and joyous. Everyone knows the story of The Prodigal Son. It’s a story of joy and rebirth. Everyone – except for the faithful brother who really does get the short end of the stick – rejoices when the prodigal son returns. The one who was presumed lost is celebrated when found again. As is the stray sheep who is found. The sheep parable is a little odd, because the shepherd risks losing the other 99 just to find the one. I personally would’ve kept the 99 and written the 1 off, but that’s just me.

Chapter 16
The chapter opens up with another warning about monetary wealth. This time in parable form: a (financial?) manager who is about to be fired gets his clients to falsify the amount of money they actually owe to the Master. One who owes $100 states that he owes $50, etc. This seemed logical, until the next bit: ” The master praised the dishonest manager for being so clever.” Hmmm… To make things a little more confusing, Jesus then explains the parable with: “I’m telling you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous riches, so that when they’re gone you’ll be welcomed into eternal homes.” That has me totally and completely baffled. Can anyone explain to me exactly what this means?

Luke doesn’t have much respect for the Pharisees either, sneaking in another little dig, “Now the Pharisees, who love money…” Jesus told another parable, this time of Lazarus the leper and an unnamed rich man. Lazarus would go to beg for table scraps at the rich man’s table. Both died; Lazarus ended up in heaven with Abraham, while the rich man ended up in Hades. The rich man begged for help, but Abraham told him it was not allowed, nor was it possible. Abraham said that people have the teachings of Moses and the prophets to help them get to heaven. We just need to listen to those teachings and live our life by these.

Mind you, the Pharisees are well versed in scriptures, and should know the teachings of Moses and the prophets better than most. This is a double-slight on Jesus’s part, telling the Pharisees both that their love for money has pulled them off the path set out by scripture. Needless to say, the Pharisees don’t like being told they are going to hell.

Chapter 17
Not much going on here. More teachings on faith and sin (don’t lead anyone to sin, forgive someone whenever they ask for forgiveness). There’s a slight contradiction regarding how to tell when the kingdom of god is coming. On the one hand, Jesus says that “The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display” and warns his disciples that there will be people claiming to be Christ but actually aren’t. However, Jesus then says “For just as lightning flashes and shines from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” which one is which?

Jesus also warns that not everyone will be allowed into the kingdom of god (this is a very common theme in the gospels so far, especially in Luke). A wife might be chosen while her husband is left behind. The disciples asks where this will happen, and Jesus gives a grisly answer: “Wherever there’s a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” [shudder]

Chapter 18
This is a quick chapter. Jesus finishes up his sermon and gets the disciples ready to travel. He tells the 12 that they are going to make their way to Jerusalem. Jesus also warns that he is going to be tortured and killed, but the disciples don’t understand what he is saying.

Up next: Luke tells a new tale about the death of Christ

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series will be accessible via http://biffster.org/category/bible If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page.

Thank you for coming back to read more of this series, The New Testament in Review.

If I could only read one chapter in the entire Bible, it would be Luke 7.  Words fail me when I try to describe the beauty of this chapter. Forgiveness and love are brought to life. Faith and redemption intermingle and flow off the pages of the book. This chapter by itself is a masterpiece. Please, please take the time to read Luke 7. You won’t regret it.

Chapter 7
There are chapters and verses in the Bible that give a person hope and faith and a sense of love so real that it is overwhelming. The are the parts of the Bible that can convert someone to believe in Christ and his teachings and to become a follower. Luke 7 is all of that and more. I cannot begin to describe how wondrous this chapter is, but I can at least give you an idea of the events.

Jesus heads back to Capernaum  (what is it about that town that draws Christ there so often?) and bumps into a centurion. Unlike Luke, we don’t find out his name. His story is almost universally known, however. The centurion’s servant is dying, so the centurion has other servants seeks out Jesus to see if Jesus can heal the servant. Jesus starts on his way to the centurion’s house, but is met by the centurion’s friend. The relay the centurion’s message: “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. That’s why I didn’t presume to come to you. But just say the word, and let my servant be healed.” Jesus is amazed at the centurion’s faith (“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found this kind of faith!”) and heals the servant.

Luke adds more texture to these stories, as I’ve come to expect. A crowd followed Jesus to Nain. They stumble upon a funeral procession and a devastated mother. She is a widow, and he was her only son. Jesus is moved by the woman’s grief, tells the boy to get up. So the boy sits up in his coffin and lives once more. The crowd does what you’d expect: They start running around in fear! That’s another nice touch by Luke.

This is also where John the Baptist sends messengers to find Jesus. John wants to know if Jesus is the Christ, or if John should continue to search to find the messiah. And who can blame John? I am sure that he wanted to get out of the wilderness, find clothes that weren’t made out of camel hair, take a nice, long bath and then have a filling meal. As with the other gospels, Jesus doesn’t answer the question directly, but instead tells the messengers to describe everything they’ve heard and seen Jesus do, and let John make up his own mind.

Jesus then goes on to talk about John the Baptist. This is something that I don’t remember from the other gospels. He asks the people what they expected the Baptist to look and be like, then extols him: “Really, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and even more than a prophet! [...] I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John.” And I would expect the two to have a close bond: their mothers knew each other, they were about the same age (John is six months older), and they lived in the same general area. There should be a mutual fondness between the two.

Luke takes a second to editorialize here: “the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s plan for themselves.” Then he recounts Jesus singing a children’s song to mock the Pharisees:

A wedding song we played for you,
the dance you did but scorn.
A woeful dirge we chanted, too,
but then you did not mourn.

Jesus then points out a major difference between the Baptist and himself: John doesn’t drink, but Jesus has been known to like his wine. (“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”

I seriously think that Jesus would be fun to hang out with. He has a sense of humor, likes to drink wine and tells great stories.

There’s one more story in Luke. It’s in the other Gospels, too. But the other Gospels just mention that Jesus forgave the sins of a woman who touched him. In Luke, the story is mangified, clarified and brought to life.

A Pharisee invites Jesus for dinner, and Jesus actually goes to the Pharisee’s home. A towns woman – and notorious sinner – learns that Jesus is on his way, and she meets him there. She washes “his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. Then she kissed his feet over and over again.” The Pharisee is shocked, of course, but also tries to use the fact that Jesus is allowing this behavior as proof that Jesus isn’t a prophet. (One note here: this is one of many times that those near Jesus refer to him as a prophet. I don’t remember Jesus ever correcting them.)

Jesus has an answer for Simon (Luke does name the Pharisee, after all). In parable form, of course: two men owe a loan shark money, one owes $500, and one owes $50. Who will be more grateful if the loan shark forgives their debts?

Simon gives the easy answer, then  Jesus explains the parable to Simon. The woman’s sins were high, so she was the most grateful to have them forgiven. She showed Jesus love and kindness in thanks. Simon had very few sins to be forgiven, but as such he did not show any kindness. Jesus then turns to the woman and says “Your faith had saved you. Go in peace.”

I am moved, truly moved.

Chapter 8
First off, I was completely wrong about the story of Simon and the sinner. That is a completely different tale than the woman who reached out through the crowd and touched Jesus’s arm. That story is here in Chapter 8. As is the casting out of Legion, and the parable of the sower. Mary Magdalene is also mentioned by name here, but only to say that she was with the crowd of Jesus’s followers.

Chapter 9
There’s not much new in Chapter 9. There are some small changes, details given, bits explained (for example, Herod doesn’t think that Jesus is the Baptist reincarnated. But he does want to meet Jesus.) Most of Chapter 9 can be skipped as extraneous.

Oh, one funny line: after the disciples see Moses and Elijah, Matthew asks if he should set up tents. To which, Luke parenthetically adds: “Peter didn’t know what he was saying.” For some reason, this gave me the giggles.

One last bit before we move on: Jesus has started to prophesy his death. The disciples don’t understand (it is hinted that god keeps them from understanding), but Christ is foreshadowing his end.

Chapter 10
Jesus adds 70 new disciples to his group. Wait, what was that? Why have I not heard of these 70 disciples before? I am pretty sure I haven’t, anyway. All I remember are the 12. This is the reason I am re-reading the New Testament. There’s so much in here that I don’t remember at all. And Luke’s Gospel appears to be chock full of stuff I can’t recall ever hearing.

Jesus sends the 70 out into neighboring towns. They are charged with seeing if the towns believe and are practicing Jesus’s teachings. These are all towns where Jesus went to, taught and performed miracles in, including Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum. (Not a surprise there: Capernaum is one of the two cities that actually threw Jesus out of town.) Jesus also gets a little mythical on us here. Jesus says that he saw Satan “fall from heaven like lightning.”

After this, an “expert in the law” asked Jesus what must be done to gain eternal life? Jesus turned the question back on the questioner (as Christ was wont to do) by asking what the law (scriptures) says. The man answered that a person must love God and love your neighbor. Jesus said this was correct, but then the man asked a question which made Jesus stop and think for a bit.  This is one of the first time’s that Luke has shown Jesus as anything less than perfect. That intrigues me.

Oh, the question is: “Who is my neighbor?” After pondering this for a while, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Then Jesus asks which of the three would be the attacked man’s neighbor: the priest who walked by without stopping, the Levite who crossed to the opposite side of the street, or the Samaritan who stopped, tended to the man’s wounds and took him to an Inn to heal.

At the end of the chapter, Jesus visits the home of Martha. Martha’s sister Mary sat with Jesus and listened to everything he had to say. Could this have been Mary Magdalene? This isn’t specifically stated, but Jesus says that “there’s only one thing you need. Mary has chosen what is better, and it is not to be taken away from her.” Is it safe to say that the better something that Mary has chosen is Christ’s love?

Chapter 11
Chapter 11 starts out with the Lord’s Prayer, and then leads right into a charming parable. I’ll type it out here instead of pasting, because it is impossible to keep track of which “he” is being referred to. Someone needed to tell Luke to watch out for pronoun confusion!

Suppose that one of your friends knocks on your door at midnight, and asks for some bread. The friend says that they have unexpected guests, and have nothing to feed the guests. You are tired and grumpy, so you say “Hey, it’s after midnight, everyone is asleep and our doors are locked. Go over to King Soopers or something and leave me alone.”

If your friend stays at your door knocking instead of going away, you would probably get tired of the knocking and give your friend the bread, just so you could get back to sleep. Jesus equates this to praying. You may not get what you ask for immediately, but if you keep at it, persistently praying and asking God, you will get what you want.

Need I point out that Jesus is suggesting that we act like a two year old who wants something that their parents won’t give them?

Chapter 11 is full of famous quotes that are commonly used – almost always out of context – today. An example of some of them:

Chapter 12
I am noticing a trend here: Jesus ends up in a bad mood anytime he’s had to deal with the Pharisees. Jesus is in a very bad mood in chapter 12, warning everyone that there will be blood! All secrets will be revealed, God has the power kill you and throw you into hell, there’s no redemption for those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, etc. Jesus again gives his fun little bon mot: “Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? Not at all, I tell you”.

There are some glimpses of light in Chapter 12, but not many.

Oh, one interesting note: Luke 12:28 has the ” o ye of little faith” line. Like most of the other Biblical quotes that have become embedded into our popular culture, it is taken out of context. The full quote is: “Now if that’s the way God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow, how much more will he clothe you—you who have little faith?” It’s not an admonition but a rebuke.

Up next: Jesus sings a rebuke to Jerusalem.

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

Thank you for coming back to read more of this series, The New Testament in Review.

The Gospel of Luke

I am a little surprised at how hard it is to keep up this pace. I am pretty sure I am going to start spreading out the post dates for these posts. I might go from twice a week to once a week. The downside is it would take the equivalent of a month to get through some of the longer chapters in the New Testament (e.g. Matthew). What say you?

We are up to the Gospel of Luke. I have good feelings about this one.Two things I notice about Luke’s gospel that may or may not hold: 1) Luke is a lot more complete. He seems to give details of who is around Jesus, and other events that are happening. 2) Luke sounds a lot more like an Old Testament writer. NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Luke also turns out to be one hell of a writer, and his gospel quickly becomes my favorite book in the Bible. It is masterful. My review below does not do it justice.

Chapter 1
The worst opening line ever written: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us”

WTF?

Seriously, WTF? If you are one of those who swear by the King James Version, even after reading that I just have to assume that you are masochists. Or that you haven’t read that verse (or the many like it). Seriously, step out of the 17th century already!

My translation of choice (as you may have noticed) is the International Standard Version, which renders a much more logical “Since many people have attempted to write an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” Sounds much better.

Luke has written this Gospel for Theophilus. I had to look it up too. No one apparently knows who Theophilus was. His name is recorded, but otherwise Theophilus has been lost to history.

Anyway, that is besides the point. Luke starts ahead of the beginning of the story, taking us 6 months into the past. Luke wants to introduce us to Zechariah – a priest of the order of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth was barren, which will play into the story in a bit. One day at the temple, The Angel of the Lord (in this case, Gabriel) appears to Zechariah, tells him that Elizabeth is going to get pregnant and to name the baby John. Zechariah is a bit doubtful, so the angel strikes him mute until the child is born.

Interestingly enough, after reading that Zechariah couldn’t talk to anyone, I wondered why he couldn’t just write down what he wanted to say. Turns out I was reading ahead a little without even realizing it. He’s a smart one, that Zech. He just needs to learn how to speak reverently with an angel. Gabriel doesn’t have a sense of humor about this kind of stuff.

Elizabeth gets pregnant, and about 6 months in, her friend Mary turns up pregnant. Mary is, of course, pregnant by the Holy Spirit (or by Joseph, depending on your point of view) with Jesus. Elizabeth, it turns out, is pregnant with John the Baptist. No wonder why they grow up to be such friends!

Chapter 2
Oh, wait, this is still Chapter 1. This may be the longest chapter in the Bible. Luke goes on for 80 verses before moving on to Chapter Two. And while a lot of those verses are very nice, I have to repeat: 80 friggin’ verses! I thought that I can be verbose? sheesh!

A lot of those verses are taken up by psalms. The first is one that every Catholic in the world knows by hear: “blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (v. 42) But there is a great song from Mary to the Lord (v. 46-55) and from Zecheriah (v. 68-79) Both are good, Mary’s is very good:

From now on, all generations will call me blessed
because the Almighty has done great things for me.
His name is holy.

Chapter 2 (really)
My god, 52 verses. I’ll tell you one thing about Luke: he isn’t into brevity. But I have to say, I am really liking Luke. He is adding a lot of context and subtly to his story that Matt and Mark were sorely lacking. He is also anchoring the setting of his story, both in location and history. Matthew and Mark sat down to write reports on what happened, while Luke decided to write a novel.

As you can guess by its length, a lot happens in chapter 2. In the first half, Caesar Augustus orders a census. Quirinius, Governor of Syria, demanded all Jews return to their hometowns to be counted. The names and historical events help ground the story, and help future generations consult ancient records and find when and where the story took place. I love this!

We know the story from here: all of the inns in Bethlehem (the city of David, since Joseph is from the house of David) were full, so they had to stay in a stable. The baby was born, wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a manger. Gabriel commanded that the baby’s name would be Jesus (I didn’t realize Gabriel named Jesus). Angels appeared to nearby shepherds and proclaimed the baby Christ, the shepherds traveled to see the child, they left after 8 days and the poor child was circumcised.

Of course, Luke writes this in a more eloquent style, and adds some amazing subtext. Like this small bit from v. 18-19: “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, but Mary continued to treasure in her heart all these things and to ponder them.” Mary is painted as a real woman, a real mother. You can feel her love for her new baby. To her it doesn’t matter whether or not he is the son of God. He is her son; that is what is important.

Jesus grows up in chapter two, and we see some of it. As a baby, he keeps getting labeled as someone holy, normally by priests or elders at the temple. One man (Simeon) dies in peace because he has finally seen the Christ. Luke likes psalms and songs, so Simeon of course has to give one before he dies. I like it, so I’ll quote it in full:

Master, now you are allowing your servant to leave in peace according to your word.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared for all people to see—
a light that will reveal salvation to the Gentiles and bring glory to your people Israel.”

One day, when Jesus was 12, the family made the journey from Nazareth to the temple in Jerusalem. On their way back, Mary and Joseph realized they had no idea where Jesus was. After three days of frantic searching and retracting their steps, they finally found Jesus learning from teachers at the temple.

Mary reacts exactly like you’d expect a mother to react: “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been worried sick looking for you!” Luke doesn’t mention it, but I am certain that Jesus ended up being grounded after that stunt.

One last line, to show just how well Luke understood Mary: “His mother continued to treasure all these things in her heart.” No matter what Jesus did, whether it was to be respectful or to scare the living hell out of her, Mary loved him with all of her heart.

Chapter 3
I don’t know if I mentioned this already or not, but Luke’s Gospel could be made into a musical. Everyone breaks into song, including Mary, Zecheriah, Simeon, and now John the Baptist. Who actually becomes a Baptist here; before this he was just John. John is a very strict, stern tearcher: he warns the people that they are damned unless they are baptized. And who would be foolish enough not to be baptized after hearing that?

There’s a bit of a time discrepancy here: in Matthew and Mark, John baptizes Jesus long before John is arrested on Herod’s orders. In Luke, John is arrested very early. In verse order, John is arrested (v. 20) and then Jesus is baptized (v. 21). On this timeline, John didn’t baptize Jesus. Some unnamed someone did. Which, in the grand scheme of things doesn’t mean much: Jesus was baptized, it doesn’t matter by who. But that’s definitely an inconsistency in the Bible.

Oh, there’s one more Biblical inconsistency in the next verse. In Mattew and Mark, when heaven opens up God speaks to everyone in the area, saying “this is my son.” In Luke, when heaven opens up, God speaks directly to Jesus, saying “You are my son, whom I love.” It’s a small discrepancy, but contextually it is much bigger. In Matt and Mark, since God tells those listening that Jesus is his son, I assume that Jesus already knows. In Luke, since God is telling Jesus, I assume that Jesus either doesn’t know, or doesn’t really believe.

Chapter 4
This chapter is kinda dull. since Jesus is already in the wilderness, he goes out and is tempted by the devil. The only difference of note is that the devil is planning to tempt Jesus again (“he left him until another time”). When was that time?

Jesus heads back to the temple to do some more teaching, and he’s a little cocky about it. He reads a long excerpt from Isaiah, then tells the temple-goers “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” This is in Nazareth, by the way, and the Nazarenes are shocked that Jesus is actually teaching with this kind of authority. But then something unexpected happens: Jesus rebukes them. And he does it in song! (Well, maybe not in song. But it would be awesome if he did.)

Jesus tells everyone listening that he will not perform the miracles and healings that he did in Capernaum, because “a prophet is not accepted in his hometown.” Jesus then goes on to compare the people of his hometown to widows and, in a brilliantly-worded insult, to “many lepers in Israel in the prophet Elisha’s time, yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

The people listening to this paused for a second, then erupted with anger. A crowd formed around Jesus, and they forced him out of the city, and up to the edge of a hill. They stopped there, trying to get up the courage to toss Christ over the side. Instead, Jesus just walked through the crowd and shook the dust of the town off his sandals.

Okay, I must say, that was an awesome story. I take back some of the things I said about this chapter.

Chapter 5
Luke must’ve been a fisherman, because he knows a whole lot about fishing. Enough to go into some detail. In Matthew and Mark, Christ’s recruitment of the fishermen Simon Peter, John and James is given a mere sentence or two. In Luke, they are given a whole paragraph, v. 4-11. Jesus escapes being crushed to death by hopping on board Simon Peter’s boat and having Simon row him out to sea. In thanks, Jesus allows such a big catch of fish that one boat cannot hold it. It’s a small thing, but Luke’s detail really enhances the story.

Interesting: In Luke, Matthew is referred to as Levi. Christ calls upon Levi to follow; Levi leaves everything behind to follow. It’s standard stuff, but I just found it interesting that Matthew refers to himself by name, but Luke calls him Levi. There’s probably good explanation for this, right?

Chapter 6
We are six chapters in, and Luke finally decides he should capture some of Jesus’s major teachings word-for-word. He records Jesus’s speech on the hillside. I’ve mentioned before how much I love this part. I found another line in that speech that I don’t remember but love just as much: “One blind person can’t lead another blind person, can he? Both will fall into a ditch, won’t they?”

Up next: The most loving, most forgiving, most uplifting chapter in the entire bible

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.